Server Processor Selection; AMD GX-424CC or Intel Atom C2538

[GiGo 103]

I was thinking of retiring my Synology 1815+ NAS as my emby server and using it just to store files on so was wondering with the hardware I have around the house which is better to run emby server on?

I have an old Thin Client that is rather capable (i think anyways), it has a AMD GX-424CC SoC and a Radeon R5E built in GFX card, this little client will happily work as a Retro Games box for PS1 and Dreamcast games etc... which I was thinking of re-purposing to use for an Emby Server but I'm not sure if it's more powerful than the 1815+'s Intel Atom C2538?

Looking at benchmarks it appear the AMD would be better at running the Emby server, but wanted a bit of input from people that are far more 'in the know' than me.

TIA

[Luke 37066]

Hi, it looks capable, although as always, it depends on how many users, what kind of playback, etc.

[GiGo 103]

On 10/31/2021 at 12:24 PM, Luke said:

Hi, it looks capable, although as always, it depends on how many users, what kind of playback, etc.

Thanks for your input, I know it should be capable as the benchmarks say it tests higher than the NAS's Atom chip, I was just thinking with the added GFX would that make it better for transcoding? The clock speed is the same, I was just thinking of taking the 'pressure' off the NAS. I only ever have 2 streams at once, but that could increase, but not likely too.

@cayars

[Carlo 4330]

Does your NAS do hardware transcoding right now for you?
If it does I'd likely not bother to move Emby to the PC.  Reason being that Emby has direct access to the media right now but on the PC everything would need to get pulled via LAN.

[GiGo 103]

2 hours ago, cayars said:

Does your NAS do hardware transcoding right now for you?
If it does I'd likely not bother to move Emby to the PC.  Reason being that Emby has direct access to the media right now but on the PC everything would need to get pulled via LAN.

I have the option selected, but no idea if it does anything or not, I assume it does as it does transcode things, but the NAS does not have a GPU so sends the little Atom processor in 99% usage every time you throw HEVC encoded file at it unless I'm playing it on my Roku. I was assuming using the AMD GX-424CC thin client it would use the Radeon R5E inbuilt graphics to help hardware decode? I'm not sure if that's the case or not, please tell me if I'm wrong. 

Edited November 3, 2021 by GiGo

[GrimReaper 3294]

4 hours ago, GiGo said:

I was assuming using the AMD GX-424CC thin client it would use the Radeon R5E inbuilt graphics to help hardware decode?

It appears that it would be of limited benefit, as said APU supports no HW accelleration, according to manufacturer:

 

You'd likely see some minor improvement, seeing CPU being slightly more beefy - I reckon not much, though. 

Edited November 3, 2021 by GrimReaper
Typo

[Carlo 4330]

I'm for leaving the system the way it is for your main system since there is likely little to be gained.
Nothing wrong with setting up a 2nd Emby server on the PC as a backup or to have or to run the beta version!

You could even install a different OS on this PC since it's older just to get a bit of experience with alternate OSes than Windows if that appeals to you.
Linux Mint https://linuxmint.com/ or Manjaro ((XFCE)  https://manjaro.org/ would be great choices to try as they are two of the friendlier UIs for Window's users to adjust to.

Now a game changer to this would be if you can get or have around the house an Nvidia GPU/Graphics card. If you have one of those that would allow Emby to offload encoding/decoding and make the transition to the PC a lot more attractive!